“Virtual visits and other remote care services are poised to take off as CMS has announced plans for reimbursement. With EHRs in place and incentives to engage their patient population, providers are working to integrate patient-generated data and to think of patients as partners. In early 2015 large consumer device companies will commercially launch sensor-laden wearable devices, which they hope take the multi-year wearable trend mainstream — finally.

Posted onJanuary 20, 2015|Comments Off on Moving From Mandate To Reality: A Roadmap For Patient And Family Engagement

“The Roadmap lays out eight specific strategies for change, which together constitute a comprehensive approach for how patient and family engagement can drive health system transformation. For each change strategy, the Roadmap provides a brief description of what it entails and numerous specific tactics that can be executed to advance the strategy. There are also milestones that can help in assessing implementation progress and results. The tactics are drawn from existing research evidence and promising directions where sufficient evidence may still be lacking.

“25 percent of large employers that provide incentives for wellness use some sort of financial penalty against their workers if they don’t participate in programs that are intended to improve their health.

Many large employers are self-insured, so such penalties accrue directly to their bottom line if enforced. Most wellness program enrollees have lower medical costs of about $40 a year…But the penalties are often 10 times more than that…

However, there is some question as to whether such penalties shift wellness programs from voluntary to compulsory–and therefore make them illegal. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently sued a Wisconsin company that refused to pay the premiums of a worker that declined to undergo screenings.